07ASTANA1003, KAZAKHSTAN: FINANCE MINISTER CONFIRMS APPROVAL OF CTR

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001003
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (M.O'MARA), SCA/RA (A. CUMMINGS)
PLEASE PASS TO DTRA
SECDEF WASHINGTON DC//ASD-ISP/TSP-CP/CTR AND ATSD/NCB/CT/TR
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARMPRELKNNPKZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: FINANCE MINISTER CONFIRMS APPROVAL OF CTR
CONTRACTS
REF: ASTANA 974 AND PREVIOUS
ASTANA 00001003 001.2 OF 002
¶1. (SBU) Minister of Finance Korzhova sent a letter to the
Ambassador on April 17 confirming that the interagency commission
established to review Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) value-added
tax exemption (VAT) claims for subcontractors has recommended the
approval of nine of ten pending contracts. Post submitted five of
the contracts. The only contract not approved covers consulting
services and was set aside for further review.
¶2. (SBU) Informal Embassy translation as follows:
Dear Mr. Ordway,
The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan presents to
you its compliments and upon review of your letter of April 9, 2007,
regarding the validity of applying the Agreement between the United
States of America and the Republic of Kazakhstan Concerning the
Destruction of Silo Launchers of Intercontinental Ballistic
Missiles, Emergency Response, and the Prevention of Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons of December 13, 1993 (hereinafter, " the Agreement
") to subcontracts established under the Cooperative Threat
Reduction Program, wishes to inform you of the following:
Decree No. 271 of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated
April 5, 2007, has formed a special Republic of Kazakhstan
Consultative and Advisory Government Body, the Interagency
Commission (hereinafter, " IC"), for the purpose of administering
the activities performed pursuant to the Agreement. The IC has
convened on April 12 and 13 to review the subcontracts listed below,
which the RK MFA has submitted for exemption from taxes, fees, and
customs duty as specified in articles IX and XII of the Agreement.
Contract DTRA 01-03-?-0058/01 with Degelen LLC dated September 1,
2003, for $ 257, 888.00;
Contract DTRA 04-?-0018/1 with Degelen LLC dated 19 May 2004 ????
for $ 746,866. 00;
Contract DTRA 1-04-? 0024/1 with Degelen LLC dated 5 July 2004 for
$ 223,946.00;
Contract DTRA 1-05-?-0036/1 with Degelen LLC dated 15 September 2005
for $ 3,500,000;
Contract DTRA1 1-05-?-0036/1 with Degelen LLC dated 15 September
2005 for $ 3,500,000;
Contract DTRA 24914-?02-F??-?000-00001 with Alef Company LLC for $
941,168.87;
Contract ? 24914-202-F?4-?00Y-00004 with Sani LLC for $52,000.00;
Contract ? 24914-202-F??-??00-00002 with Mir Zhilya LLC for $
48,699.00;
Contract ? 24914-235-F??-??00-00001 with Stepnogorsk Invest for
$34,000.00;
Contract ? 24914-225-??4-?X00-00001 with the Non-proliferation
Support Center for $6,820.00.
In reference to the first nine contracts, the IC has decided to
consider these contracts as meeting the criteria set by the
Agreement, including the provisions for exemptions, and to submit
this decision to the appropriate authorities. In regards to the
contract established between the Non-proliferation Support Center
(ISC) and Bechtel International Systems (BIS), the Commission has
withheld from making a determination until additional information is
obtained from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the
Republic of Kazakhstan.
Availing of this occasion, I wish to renew my assurances of my
respect for you, and I look forward to our continued fruitful
cooperation.
Respectfully,
/signed/
Minister N. Korzhova
End text
¶3. (SBU) Comment: Minister Korzhova's confirmation letter indicates
that success is close at hand. We now only await Prime Minister
Masimov's final approval, which should be a formality given his
support for the program. While work is left to be done to ensure
that the VAT exemption process functions more efficiently in the
future, the Kazakhstanis have now created the necessary conditions
for work to resume on stalled CTR projects. End comment.
ORDWAY
1 Translator's Note: This no. 5 was present in the original as a
ASTANA 00001003 002.2 OF 002
repeat of no. 4.

The information recorded on this site has been extracted from http://Wikileaks.org (Kazakhstan) database..

We wish to express our gratitude to Julian Assange and his team for making this data available as it is an important public record.

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